I had an opportunity to meet Craig Newmark last week – that’s right THE Craig – from Craigs List (www.craigslist.org) . He was speaking at Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA of Vancouver) luncheon and some of his comments highlighted some philosophical similarities with Webnames.ca.

ICANN Posts Proposed 2007-2008 Budget – ICANN has posted its proposed budget for 2007-2008. Expenses are budgeted to be $US 43 million, an increase of more than $13 million over the current budget year’s projected year-end total.

Earlier this week Entrepreneur.com (a great resource for business startups and entrepreneurs – bookmark it if you fall into this category) published an article with tips on “How to Find a Good Domain Name“. The article challenges the popular perception that ‘all the good domains are gone’. While we certainly know that isn’t the case for .CA domains, with over 65 million .COM’s registered, it’s getting increasingly difficult to secure a good, evocative .COM domain in the primary market. Here are Entrepreneur.com’s tips and recommendations, with our own suggestions thrown into the mix.

ICANN Seeks Public Comment On Its Performance – ICANN is seeking community feedback about its performance. Of particular interest to ICANN are comments on transparency, accessibility, accountability, operational performance, policy development, international participation, its multi-stakeholder model, technical coordination, and dispute resolution. Comments will be received until June 5.

Today Canada celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the .CA domain, marking the official delegation of .CA to John Demco from Jon Postel of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). And as Canadians go about reading their daily paper online or checking their local weather or “Google” whatever it is they are looking for, they will likely be going to a .CA website.

We’re pleased to announce that Cybele Negris, Webnames.ca’s Chief Operating Officer has been named as a nominee to the 2007 YWCA of Vancouver, Women of Distinction Awards, in the Entrepreneurship category.

MarkMonitor Releases Brandjacking Index – MarkMonitor has released a quarterly report called the Brandjacking Index which measures the effect of online threats to brands. The study found cybersquatting posed the greatest threat, and also identified others including false association, pay-per-click fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels, and phishing.

Attention domainers and domain industry players: the third-annual Domain Roundtable Conference is scheduled for August just south of the border in Seattle, Washington. The conference will explore trends, opportunities and innovations in domain name investment, covering topics such as domain portfolio development, domain sales and acquisitions, monetization and bringing domain values to brand managers and developers in other industries. This year’s theme is “Domains Breaking into the Open Market of the Business Community” and while most sessions will cater to seasoned domain professionals, the conference will also introduce new domainers to key concepts for succeeding online.

CIRA Calls For Nominations For Board Election – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has a issued a call for individuals to be considered by the Nomination Committee for the Board of Directors election to be held this September. The last day for applications to the Nomination Committee is Monday, May 21. The 2007 election, to be held this September, will be a split ballot composed of candidates selected by the Nomination Committee and nominated directly by Members. The Member nomination process will take place during July.

I had the unfortunate experience of spilling an entire cup of tea into my keyboard last Monday morning. This may be as much a testimonial to Dell that I am writing this email on the same keyboard today, but here is my recipe for keyboard recovery in the event of a spill:

Still struggling with organic search engine optimization? The folks at SEOmoz recently published their list of Search Engine Ranking Factors and if you care about being found on the Internet, you should take note. So who are these people? More than just another Internet Marketing company, SEOmoz is a hub for search marketers worldwide, providing education, tools and resources to help individuals, non-profits and government organizations leverage the unique reach of the Internet to increase their online visibility and success. They also maintain a top-notch blog about search engine optimization, social media, online marketing, useability and other important stuff that affects your online world.

More Registry Price Increases – Following VeriSign’s registry price increases announced for .com and .net, Public Interest Registry and Afilias have announced registry-level price increases for .org and .info names, respectively. The increases for each are 2.5%, from $US 6.00 to $6.15, and will take effect in October. Individual registrars will decide whether or not to change their retail prices.

Our new and improved webmail user interface has launched. This upgrade will enable you to accomplish more with your Webnames.ca Webmail.

In addition to the flexibility of sending and receiving e-mail from any computer with Internet access, our new webmail comes with calendaring and contacts manager, e-mail search functionality, shared task manager, notepad, enhanced folder management, allowed senders and blocked senders, among other features. We hope find the improved interface and new features easy-to-use.

Spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail, has risen in both quantity and sophistication over recent years. In 2006 spam made up 40% of all e-mail, a number expected to increase to an unnerving 63% in 2007. With the average person receiving over 2,200 unsolicited messages last year alone, spam has reached unsavory new heights. To help combat the impacts of spam on our customers, Webnames.ca has made comprehensive upgrades to our e-mail service.